James and Lilly have always been mortal enemies – but what happens when they decide to settle their arguments by dares and challenges– and go through the consequences the losers face? Will their love be triggered? LxJ

Disclaimer; I do not own ANY part of Harry Potter, story and all – but I do own this plot…

James and Lily have always been mortal enemies – but what happens when they decide to settle their arguments by dares and challenges– and go through the consequences the losers face?

Chapter 14: Right…

"No, no and no!" Lily muttered tiredly. She had been pestered by both Kitty and Jane for the past few hours on the 'incident' that happened last night. Reid, however, was kind enough to turn a deaf ear.

"But you were sleeping in each other's arms!" Kitty argued, glancing away from their DDA teacher.

"Actually, I 'fell' onto his crotch – I mean, lap," Lily corrected herself dryly, knowing the damage had been made. Kitty's pupils dilated as if she was in shock. A gleeful, gossipy type of shock.

"You naughty girl! You have him a hea-,"

"No I did not!" Lily snapped, her voice close to being shrill. "Nothing of that sort,"

"Whatever you say, Lils," Kitty said with a tell-tale sign of amusement. "But I would have done more if I were you; he is James Potter after all,"

"What?" Lily said out of surprise. What the heck did she mean?

"I mean, even though he's not really one of the most handsome guys – he's one of the hardest to get," Kitty said.

"Uh – please elaborate," Lily said, closing her text book and taking out her note-book.

"Like, he's always, always busy with Quidditch pratice. That's why you should've done more while you had the chance!" Kitty explained enthusiastically.

"Homework is to write about the properties of Moon-bane that can be used to repel certain creatures. Four pieces of parchment please, and no less," Their teacher said curtly, watching them write down the assignment. "Mr. Black! Tell me what's the homework?" Sirius stood up, smiling.

"Probably something hard and extremely boring," Sirius said cheekily, "Nothing like you of course, sir,"

"Five points off Gryffindor," snapped the professor, making the other houses laugh, "For inappropriate behavior. Tell him what the assignment is, Lupin,"

"Typical," coughed Lily who was two seats in front of them.

"What was that, Lily?" Sirius asked.

"Oh nothing," Lily said innocently.

"Ah, I thought I heard something along the lines of 'typical'," Sirius grinned.

"What? No1 I said treacle," Lily said sweetly, dropping her books into her bad. "I was commenting on the treacle we had last night,"

"I see," he winked at her before hurrying away with a joyous jump in the air. "Prongsie! Wait for me!" Reid coughed, catching Lily's attention.

"When is he not hyper?" Reid muttered, "He's like frigging high on sugar every single day!"

"Well said," Remus said cutting through them. "Speaking of which, did you happen to see what direction they went?"

"Unfortunatly, yes. They went-," But there was no need for them to finish their sentence. A familiar yell prevented them from doing so.

"Moony! We'd forgotten about you and Wormtail, hurry up!" Sirius voice boomed though the corridor.

James was in an uncomfortable situation. "Why won't you go steady with me? I've liked you since our second year," Cassy, a girl with far more cleavage than brains, said.

"Well, we obviously weren't thinking on the same lines," he muttered, not liking this at all – he was flat against the wall due to her eager attitude.

"Oh, please?" she pouted.

"I'm kinda…busy with quidditch and stuff, yeh. You know," he gave a casual shrug, trying to slide to the right.

"You said that five minutes ago,"

"I did? Oh yeah…listen, I know you like me – but there are loads of other people who like me too, and there just isn't enough of me to go around," that would have earned him a spot on Lily's 'to-slap' list. "Right?"

"I don't care! I want to go steady with you," she stomped, rather like a spoilt child. "I don't care that there are loads of other girls that want to go out with you I just -,"

"POTTER!" yelled an all too familiar girl. "Where the heck are you? You're late for the meeting!" James, on the other hand, had never been so happy to see Lily. "I swear, once I find you I'm going to cut you up and…Potter?" James grinned.

"Ah! Evans!" he edged further to the side. "Let's go shall we, we don't want to keep them waiting,"

"ARE YOU FRIGGIN BLIND!" came the reply – from both James and Lily, their hands clenched into fists. "Why would I like him?"

"What am I supposed to see in her?"

Cassy cowered to a side; the sight of two Gryffindor prefects with their sleeves rolled up and hands balled into fists was pretty frightening. "Sorry!" She ran off, clutching her bag to her chest. Lily lowered her fist, still twitching out of annoyance.

"She either needs glasses or brain cells," Lily muttered, tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear. James noticed this and found it surprisingly alluring.

"Personally, I think she needs both." James responded.

"Yeah, for God's sake, she was asking you out," Lily said, "Obvious show of her stupidity,"

"Prick," James mumbled darkly. "Well, shall we go? You yourself said we were late,"

"It was over, they sent me to tell you what you've missed," she shrugged and began her assent to the Gryffindor common room. "I've realized something," Lily said suddenly, stopping James in his tracks.

"What?"

"People have been saying that we're supposed to be the 'it' couple of Hogwarts for the past five years," Lily started, "And they haven't given up yet,"

"So you think we're suited to become a couple?" she asked. James shrugged.

"Strange things happen – we haven't been arguing lately," he pointed out, "I'd count that as an improvement,"

"So you do think it's possible,"

"Well yeah, once you stop being a wench," and with a guilty little grin, he sped down the hallway.

"Jerk,"

During the next two weeks James and Lily abandoned their usual arguing spree due to their O.W.Ls. So, for a couple of days, all was peace and quite throughout the Gryffindor fifth years. Finally, the last exam of them all had ended, leaving the fifth years to a more care-free evening. "That was so easy it was actually scary," James remarked about the Transfiguration written exam they just had.

"You found it easy?" Said Peter admirably, "I thought it was slightly difficult," Sirius nudged Remus.

"What about you?"

"Don't want to jinx it, if you know what I mean," Remus said grinning. He had been tense during the exam period and had had the tendency to snap back at people. That trait, however, was all gone. "But I'm still slightly peaky," The full moon had risen not too long ago, just before their OWLs. James patted his friend on the back.

"You look fine,"

"Better than you anyway," they headed towards the lake. "You're not planning to start a fight with Snape again, are you?" Remus said, sighing.

"No, but he's not even here," Sirius pointed out.

"I just wanted to make sure," Remus continued, "As much as I love you guys, it's rather scary when you become as idiotic as toddlers."

"I, for one, was never idiotic when I was a toddler," James said, running a hand through his hair. Sirius smothered a snort.

"And there's another thing I want to make sure,"

"What?" Peter asked.

"Well," he turned to James, "You're not going to start arguing with Lily again, right?"

"Um…I don't know," James said truthfully. "You know, stuff just happens around us…yeah," he rubbed the back of his neck, "We haven't been at each other's necks lately though,"

"And we're so proud of you," Sirius remarked sarcastically, patting James' check. "Honestly, Prongs, when are you going to get a move on?"

"Potter," Lily said, breaking away from her group. "You left something in the exam hall, intentionally or accidentally, I don't know – but I don't want it," she threw a hard-back book at him labeled 'Hexes, Curses and other things to annoy your friends with'. James only barely caught it. An amused smirk came to his face.

"Aren't you going to confiscate it?"

"As much as I would like to, I can't – so long as you don't do anything in there," she headed back down to re-join her group.

"Fat chance," James muttered under his breath. But as he saw her walk away, a small smile tugged at his lips without his knowing…

Could it be, after all these years that James Potter was falling for Lily Evans?

Something was defiantly wrong. During the past two days James hadn't been able to stop thinking – about Lily. The words Lily Evans ran through his mind like some mind-boggling virus. And it was causing him much mental pain. He wasn't exactly sure when it had started, but it was bugging him so much that he didn't feel like playing quidditch anymore. Of course, his friends had noticed something was wrong – but James hadn't known how to tell them.

Lily, Lily, Lily…He held his head in his hands, trying to erase that throbbing feeling. He walked along the corridor, barely seeing which direction he was heading. He slammed into a wall. "Potter!" Hopefully it wouldn't be Lily when he turned around.

No such luck. "Ah…Evans," he said as confidently as he could.

"Is there anything wrong?"

"Wrong? With me? Never," he said. Lily scoffed.

"Please, unless my eyes deceived me, I saw you slam into the wall,"

"Your eyes deceived you," James said firmly. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Where are you headed?"

"Uh…the library," James said lamely.

"It's in the other direction," Lily said. "So unless you want to go down to the dungeon for extra Potions, I suggest you turn around," His mind reluctantly admitted that she was right.